Vancouver Foundation is a philanthropic non-governmental community foundation which operates primarily as a permanent collection of endowed funds. Income derived from the investment of the pooled capital of Vancouver Foundation's endowments is distributed to support the activities of charitable organizations across British Columbia.

Today, Vancouver Foundation seeks to achieve three principal goals:

1. Promote the growth of income from contributed funds to achieve donorsí charitable objectives.

2. Encourage and support those charitable organizations best able to carry out activities congruent with the purposes for which the Foundation was established.

3. Provide philanthropic leadership and support endeavours which improve the quality of life in the community.

This site provides the guidelines which the Vancouver Foundation follows in choosing successful grant applicants. This site explains eligibility, how the grant process works, the principles that the foundation follows and provides examples of ineligible requests.

The application process has two stages: a letter of inquiry and formal grant application by a specified deadline. The site provides detailed instruction in how to write the letter of inquiry, which has to be submitted at least a month before the deadline for formal applications. You can submit your letter of inquiry online from this site. The second stage of this process is the formal grant application and the site provides instructions on how to do this part as well as a section on what to do once you have received a grant from the Vancouver Foundation.